Summerland Tour rolls into Bethel

By Timothy Malcolm

Times Herald-Record

July 22, 2012 - 2:00 AM

The bands of Summerland have some very devoted fans. For instance, meet Jamie Lamond and Matthew Murray.

Lamond started Friday afternoon in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. She drove to Buffalo to pick up her boyfriend, Murray. Then they started out for Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, where one of their favorite bands, Marcy Playground, was playing Friday as part of the Summerland Tour. They had never seen the band live.

Then they hit Syracuse, and traffic, and time caught up. And when they finally got to Bethel Woods, Marcy Playground had just finished its delicious opening set. At first the couple was peeved, but ultimately had a great time.

Positivity flowed throughout Bethel Woods on Friday night, with each band acknowledging its major 1990s hits — and the special venue in which it was playing. Lit lead singer A. Jay Popoff and Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath both thanked Bethel Woods site interpreter Duke Devlin for giving them tours of the facility and the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair. They seemed earnestly awestruck by the historical significance and natural beauty of their surroundings.

"What a great vibe in the air," said McGrath during his band's deliciously delirious set. The consummate entertainer — and host of TV's "Don't Forget the Lyrics" — sauntered and struck poses wearing a white tuxedo.

Sugar Ray poured passion into decent readings of their rock hits, gave two local dudes a stage spotlight to sing to the crowd Beastie Boys and Black Eyed Peas, and broke into a cover of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop." Sugar Ray's high-octane set saw Summerland in its best groove: cheekily recognizing the cheesy tang of playing 15-year-old pop hits by employing tons of chutzpah.

Only Everclear initially seemed to miss the idea of Summerland. Decked out in all black, echoing the hidden hurt lacing its many songs, Art Alexakis and crew mumbled hoarsely through hits "Father of Mine" and "Everything to Everyone."

Some of the crowd had already left — an unfortunate comedown from Sugar Ray — but Everclear did salvage the finale by bringing the entire tour, and their kids, on stage for a performance of early hit "Santa Monica." And the singalong returned.

But a few songs earlier, Alexakis, a tour co-founder with McGrath, brought Marcy Playground lead singer John Wozniak on stage to sing Everclear's "I Will Buy You a New Life." Wozniak didn't know the words, awkwardly checking his hand for the lyrics while uncomfortably belting out whatever he could during the performance. That was the outlier, but a telling outlier.